code to perform landing on autopilot possible?

[Joel Koltner]

Yes, if Sony had no problem installing root kits on millions of PC's
it can't be very hard.

It wasn't very hard because all those people were running with admin accounts
when they inserted the CDs in question.

One would hope that on critical Boeing ATE machines (1) the day-to-day
operations are not done with an admin account! and (2) autorun is disabled
anyway.

The problem with Windoze users running with their admin accounts 100% of the
time was bad enough that Microsoft went totally overboard with UAC in Windows
Vista, largely creating a self-defeating "solution."

 

[Jim Stewart]

Paul Hovnanian P.E. [email protected] posted to
sci.electronics.design:


Yes, if Sony had no problem installing root kits on millions of PC's
it can't be very hard. Admitted, they were probably not protected
worth a tinkers damn though.

I don't want to prolong this pissing contest,
but the original scenario was a mechanic
reloading windows, not a rootkit. Apples
and oranges. You've been able to tell the
bios to only boot from the harddrive and you've
been able to password protect the bios for
about the last 20 years. I don't believe that
your typical mechanic could have reinstalled
windows had these simple precautions been
taken.

 

[JosephKK]

Nobody [email protected] posted to sci.electronics.design:

The issue isn't that such a system would never come in useful. The
issue is that the number of cases is too small to be worth either
the additional cost or the risks introduced by the additional
complexity.

Spot on.

 

[JosephKK]

[email protected] [email protected] posted to
sci.electronics.design:

Wow. Did it engage if a pilot blacked out from pulling too many Gs?

No, but the Carrier could engage it remotely for landings.

Is this feature still available in modern fighter aircraft?

I am not sure, even then mostly only for Navy aircraft.

 

[Jan Panteltje]

Nobody [email protected] posted to sci.electronics.design:


Spot on.

I am not sure.
the A380 can carry say 500 people.
A wrong landing can potentially kill all 500, and inflict grave economical damage
if those jobs are vacant all of the sudden.
People DO make mistakes, recently some planed broke up on landing due to
'pilot error' (or too short a runway or whatever).
Bad weather, windshear, landing to near to the runway end, aqua-planing, you name it.
There is a psychological issue: Will people trust a 100% robotic flight?
Most of these planes are already 100% controllable, and with multiple redundancy too.
Even the shuttle lands auto IIRC.
And I forgot drunk pilots.

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

I am not sure.
the A380 can carry say 500 people.

853 in full economy configuration. Even the older and smaller 747-400
can carry over 550 in a 2-class configuration.

A wrong landing can potentially kill all 500, and inflict grave economical damage
if those jobs are vacant all of the sudden.
People DO make mistakes, recently some planed broke up on landing due to
'pilot error' (or too short a runway or whatever).
Bad weather, windshear, landing to near to the runway end, aqua-planing, you name it.
There is a psychological issue: Will people trust a 100% robotic flight?
Most of these planes are already 100% controllable, and with multiple redundancy too.
Even the shuttle lands auto IIRC.
And I forgot drunk pilots.

Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

 

[Nobody]

I am not sure.
the A380 can carry say 500 people.
A wrong landing can potentially kill all 500, and inflict grave economical damage
if those jobs are vacant all of the sudden.
People DO make mistakes, recently some planed broke up on landing due to
'pilot error' (or too short a runway or whatever).
Bad weather, windshear, landing to near to the runway end, aqua-planing, you name it.
There is a psychological issue: Will people trust a 100% robotic flight?
Most of these planes are already 100% controllable, and with multiple redundancy too.
Even the shuttle lands auto IIRC.
And I forgot drunk pilots.

Modern aircraft already land on autopilot; that part's easy.

The hard part is having the autopilot autonomously take "strategic"
decisions (i.e. adjusting the flight plan).

Bear in mind that accidents get a lot more coverage than close shaves. The
accidents that could have been prevented by eliminating specific pilot
errors need to be balanced against the accidents which were prevented
by manual intervention.

 

[Jan Panteltje]

Modern aircraft already land on autopilot; that part's easy.

The hard part is having the autopilot autonomously take "strategic"
decisions (i.e. adjusting the flight plan).

Bear in mind that accidents get a lot more coverage than close shaves. The
accidents that could have been prevented by eliminating specific pilot
errors need to be balanced against the accidents which were prevented
by manual intervention.

Sure.
Will auto-pilot forget to put the gear down ;-)?
Sure the whole system will have to be adapted, some way
to check for runway obstackles too.
Recently there was this DARPA contest for autonomous cars in city
traffic like circumstances, some cars actually made it.
I just somehow messed up a 1GB card, because 'Oh I think it will not write
to the partition if I exchange it with an other one while it is mounted'.
Now what is it? Blackout? Too much cofee? The storm ? (bad here)?
If you were to ask me I would say 'do not do that'.
There also was this pilot who switched off the engines after take off, he perhaps
thought he was 'there'.
Not to mention that Islamic guy who went into a nose dive to kill everybody.

 

[Paul Hovnanian P.E.]

[snip]

I don't want to prolong this pissing contest,
but the original scenario was a mechanic
reloading windows, not a rootkit. Apples
and oranges. You've been able to tell the
bios to only boot from the harddrive and you've
been able to password protect the bios for
about the last 20 years. I don't believe that
your typical mechanic could have reinstalled
windows had these simple precautions been
taken.

The original branch of this thread (which I started) mentioned a
mechanic who bypassed Windows security to install his own wallpaper and
(repeated) failed attempts by various IT personnel to prevent such an
action. There was nothing mentioned about his reloading Windows. In
fact, I don't believe that this was how he accomplished the task.

Yes, not running as administrator can provide some security. But this
only works to prevent accidental system damage. If a user is motivated
to make system changes and has the ability to acquire admin privileges,
all bets are off. From what I've seen (I don't maintain any Windows
systems myself so I don't know what the trick is), becoming admin on a
Windows system is a trivial task.